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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29961879">Beautiful Eyes</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/'>Anonymous</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Character Death, Drug Addiction, Drug Use, F/M, Overdosing, Past Drug Addiction, Rehabilitation, Relapsing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 02:01:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,250</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29961879</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ron never thought he would meet the love of his life in rehab.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Millicent Bulstrode/Ron Weasley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>2021 DBQ Round One: Boggart</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Beautiful Eyes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">



        <li>In response to a prompt by
            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSlytherinCabal/pseuds/TheSlytherinCabal">TheSlytherinCabal</a>  in the  <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/collections/DBQ2021Round1">DBQ2021Round1</a>
          collection.
        </li>
    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Disclaimer: The characters do not belong to me but are the property of J.K.R. and Warner Bros. No copyright infringement is intended. The theme for this round of the competition was Boggart and my chosen pairing was Ron Weasley/Millicent Bulstrode. Comments/Reviews are encouraged by The Slytherin Cabal's Admin Team on all stories in Death By Quill, but comments left by readers are set to be moderated by story authors until the end of the competition in order to protect participants' anonymity. Thank you to my beta for their time and help.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>If someone told Ron Weasley that not only would he date but planned to ask a Slytherin to marry him seven years after he left Hogwarts he would have scoffed and possibly hexed them. Finding Millicent saved him. After the war ended and his entire family was in mourning for Fred, Ron turned to alcohol and the occasional potion to help numb the pain. He lived that way, slumped on a bar stool, his eyes glazed over from whatever was in the vial Theo Nott discreetly slid into his robe pocket outside the Leaky Cauldron.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>For five years, he lived in a haze of Ogden’s finest whiskey. Ron was surviving on barely any food and several bottles of whiskey a day. It was his father who found him, passed out in his own sick, three broken vials of Dreamless Sleep potion on the floor and his limp fingers curled around the bottle of whiskey. Arthur rushed his youngest son to St Mungos where he was admitted for weeks of inpatient rehab.  Ron fought viscously at first before finally working the program. It was there that he met </span>
  <em>
    <span>her.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The purple streaks in her hair that caught his attention first, followed by her deep brown eyes that stared blankly at the wall during group therapy. She was already a part of the rehab program when Ron was brought in, but she never spoke, even when prompted. It didn’t start to bother him until he began to work his steps and take responsibility for his sobriety. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>One of the rooms in the facility was enchanted to look and feel like an outdoor courtyard; they were all allowed to go there to feel a bit of sunshine on their faces. He was writing in a journal Hermione had given him and smoking the Muggle fags Charlie brought him during visiting hours the day before. A quiet voice pulled his attention away from his writing.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Give a girl a fag will you?” she asked him before taking one from the box, not bothering to wait for a response.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Do we know one another?” His eyes lingered on her sallow cheeks, her skin tinged with grey like his had been when he was first brought in. His heartfelt lighter when she smirked at him, lighting the fag with a flame floating in the palm of her hand.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You could say that. Millicent Bulstrode. My friends call me Millie, or at least they would if I had any left.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>They became fast friends after that. He found out she was there because her mother had washed her hands when she became addicted to Muggle heroin and overdosed. She knew she had a problem but was struggling with working the steps. Ron slowly brought her out of her cynical views, and Millie showed him what it was like to feel again. They weren’t allowed to start a relationship; it was against the rules of the facility. They both knew it wasn’t smart for two addicts in the early stages of recovery to be in a relationship of any kind, let alone with each other. They got by on lingering glances, hands briefly touching when passing something to one another</span>
  <span>—</span>
  <span>it was enough.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>When Ron left, Millie still had a few weeks left before she was set to leave. He saw her every weekend during the visiting hours, wrote her letters every other day, and counted down the days until she was able to leave. The day she was released, Ron was there. He waited with open arms that she gladly ran into, wrapping her thighs around his waist and kissing his lips deeply.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He asked her to marry him just two days after their second anniversary. She said yes and, with the help of Hermione and his mum, begun planning a small wedding set for the following Samhain. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Three months to the day after proposing, Ron came home from work at the joke shop to find their flat quiet. Millie was usually home before him and was most often found on the sofa in their sitting room, reading some poetry book he pretended he understood.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Making his way to their bedroom, his heart sank when he saw a slim orange cap, that he recognized as a Muggle needle cap, laying on the floor of the hallway just outside their bedroom door. He threw the door open and found the love of his life lying on the bed, her beautiful deep brown eyes staring up at the ceiling blankly as they had all those years ago. He fire-called St Mungos. Two healers in lime green robes rushed out of the Floo and attempted to resuscitate her. Tears streamed down Ron’s face as he watched from across their bedroom.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He started drinking again the night she was declared dead. He hid it better this time, though. He concealed the smell of whiskey on his breath, staying just buzzed enough to not think about her but sober enough to work. It was tempting to send Theo an owl to ask for potions, but he hadn’t gotten that low yet. Ron told himself that as long as he wasn’t mixing potions with the alcohol, he was fine. He knew it was a lie.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>His mother sent him an owl four months after Millie died, asking him to help clean out his old room to make use of visiting grandchildren. He downed the last few sips of his whiskey and brushed his teeth the Muggle way before popping a bit of chocolate in his mouth and Apparating away. He kissed his mum on the cheek and headed up the rickety stairs to his childhood bedroom. Ron ignored the smiling faces of his siblings, friends, and their spouses that lined the walls, glaring openly at the spots that used to hold photos of him and Millie that his mum had taken down to not upset him at the sight of her.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Ron cleaned the room quickly enough. Every few minutes, he pulled out the flask he had hidden in his robes and took a nip, his buzz well and truly hitting him when he opened the locked armour.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He stumbled back, his mouth hanging open when his Millie materialized, her dead eyes staring through him, not the beautiful brown he missed so much but dark black, a needle in her hand.  His back banged against the door, and he let out a strangled scream. She closed in on him, and though in the back of his mind he knew it was a Boggart, a big part of him wanted to let the creature take him so he could be with her again.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The door behind him was thrown open. Ron tumbled backwards, the flask in his hand slipping and spilling all over himself and his father’s shoes. He looked up to find his dad brandishing his wand. The Boggart immediately turned its attention to his father, twisting until it resembled Molly.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Riddikulus!” he shouted before pointing his wand and banishing it back to the armour. Arthur looked down, his eyes full of sadness.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Ron stared at the spot where Boggart-Millie had been before grabbing the flask and handing it to his dad with a shaking hand. “I need help, dad.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Arthur held a hand out and Ron took it, allowing his father to pull him to his feet before breaking down completely in his father’s arms.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I know son, we’ll get you the help you need. She wouldn’t want you to suffer anymore.”</span>
</p>
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